Just got home to drown my sorrows that it's over with a microwaveable Shepherd's Pie. It was brilliant, as usual, and arriving at our local shopping precinct to get some milk I had the feeling I always have after Indietracks; that normal life just doesn't measure up. Thank you for existing, Indietracks, thanks to all the hard work all the people involved put in. Time of my life. Ted loves it too. He started sobbing when it was time to go, blubbing 'I don't want to go home'. I reckon we all probably feel like that.

I didn't take any photos this year, because I was too busy having fun.

Withered Hand left me an emotional wreck. I was thinking and feeling all sorts of Big Revelatory Stuff during their set. It was a bit like taking acid except not horrible. Had to dash for the Hidden Cameras right after though, so I'm buggered if I can remember any of it.

I'll post more when I piece it together. Right now I can't think straight because I'm just in that swirly post-Indietracks haze of love and excitement and dusty hair.

Wonderful weather
Wonderful people as always
Lots of great sets as always. I can't choose my fav between these 4: Popguns, Cosines, Just Joans, Whitered Hand
My first experience of partying hard til the end Sunday was glorious and insane and unforgettable. I spoke with a guy on the bus to Derby and he couldn't sleep not for the noise made by music, but by people singing along
About food, the pizza was good, not like an Italian standard pizza, but good anyway

It was good, wasn't it? We made the decision to leave on Sunday rather than today (as neither of us have any holiday left this year) but even so it was ACE.
Top things:
Allo Darlin. Wow.
The Wendy Darlings - Suzy ripped her finger to shreds in the name of POP. That's commitment. Brilliant fun.
The Spook School. Dear God they're so good. And they're IMPORTANT. 'Something' was the lump in throat moment of the weekend.
The Blue Minkies. Eyyyyy!
The white cockatoo's (edit - somehow I wrote parakeet) funky dancing
Gruff Rhys. He's just a Beautiful Human Being, isn't he? He looks and sounds so permanently bemused, but that just makes it all the more wonderful. More Powerpoint in Pop please!

oh, and everything else, like Thee Ahs, Lisa Bouvier, The Wellgreen, The Just Joans, Dean Wareham, Cosines, the Flatmates, and everything else.

Boo (sort of) things:
The temperature in the Church - really couldn't face it for Mega Emotion. Not so much a gripe as a ohmygodmybodycanthandlethis.
Too many Sunday clashes!
Starting to feel that the merch tent sets are a bit too planned now. It felt like anyone who had just played when Martha went in there couldn't sell anything because the place was rammed (maybe this is just griping, but hey.)
And - you all may argue with this - I think we've reached Peak Uke.

Last edited by lloydybwoy on Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I wondered on the train home whether I could get a chorus of If You Don't Pull going in the carriage. I now find it impossible to accept that any relatively crowded area won't join in with it after the first line.

Also being the first customer at the bar for the 4th year running - according to the nice bar man (Found out his name this year, hello Alex).

So yeah, as I did the merch stall full time this year it was a very different Indietracks for me - it was never going to top last year (for me) but I still had an ace time. You people are all fab, it was lovely seeing so many friendly faces come by the merch tent and chatting and that.

Also managed a great 30 minutes at the Ready Steady Girls on the Saturday night and another 40 minutes in the Stolen Wine dance fest. Was looking forward to dancing on the Sunday but I came down with the start of stinking cold in the final few hours - so I packed up the merch and ended up tucked in bed watching Casanova on the telly. :-)

Not so great:
I was disappointed with the food. Pizza was selling out so early - so I never got to try it (still loved Gopels, though) but there were no decent veggie burgers. But that's such a small gripe.....

Last edited by Trev on Mon Jul 28, 2014 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Very good things:
Allo Darlin'
Spearmint (obviously)
The owls
ONSIND
Skeletal Shakes
Linda Guilala
Clearly hearing the rattle and feedback of the Manhattan Love Suicides from the clothing tent area
MJ Hibbett and the Validators
MJ Hibbett introducing me to the couple behind Lipstick On Your Collar and they being fascinated by my Phonogram T-shirt
Wareham/Gruesome confluence
The Spook School
The Spook School turning up in time for Sugarcrush less than five minutes after finishing, still baked in sweat with guitar cases on backs
Indiepop Singalong
Totem Terrors
The man having breakfast at Travelodge Little Chef at the same time as me who was asked if he was there for the festival, didn't know about it and on being told asked if it was for "bands who worship the Monochrome Set"
No Ditching
Cosines
Accidentally-on-purpose joining Cosines for five minutes
Bordeauxxx's cover of Pure Shores
The Just Joans
The foresight of the gift shop to stock up on orange Calippos
Emma Kupa
Martha
Feeling the vibrations from Mega Emotion from outside the church and then seeing them get a standing ovation
Withered Hand

Bad things:
The cumulative effect of the heat
Ravioli Me Away's no-show (they claim to have got lost, despite playing in Sheffield on Saturday)
JoGru's pedal problems and cutting the coda off Sugarcrush meaning they hardly got any reception at the end because everyone was expecting the wbig finish
Not taking my camera, again
Not getting to the miniature railway, again
That next year's is 362 days away

Best things for me:
- Allo Darlin, Spook School and Wendy Darlings were amazing. Those three bands had me smiling for pretty much the entire sets, it was joyous.
- Axolotes Mexicanos and The Thyme Machine made me laugh and forget that it was Sunday. The Tunnocks Teacake thing was certainly a first for me.
- Manhattan Love Suicides were great, I think, but I can hardly remember it - it's kind of a blur. A really loud blur.
- I also enjoyed loads of other bands too. Off the top of my head The Royal Landscaping Society, The Proper Ornaments and Linda Guilala were good. The Flatmates too; bought back nice memories of Brum Popfest (especially with the French lot dancing and shouting things again). Oh, and the Just Joans, obviously... they were kind of the sound (and faces) of the festival for me this year.
- The discos in the marquee were both a lot of fun. I didn't know what most of the stuff in the 7iete Pulgadas one was, but I really liked it. A playlist would be really nice!
- I actually managed to stay somewhere reasonably close by (Alfreton Travelodge). Made the mistake of staying in Derby the first time, then got moved to Mansfield due to overbooking last year. It actually made a huge difference to just be able to walk there and back.
- That dancing cockatoo was pretty great.
- No rain.

Worst things:
- Clashes. Probably the worst year I've had for that. It meant I missed a few things I'd really like to have seen... Joanna Gruesome, Mega Emotion and Night Flowers mainly, and Alpaca Sports in the tent. I don't regret any of my choices though, which I guess eases the pain a bit.
- I also missed some stuff for no particular reason. Hobbes Fanclub (for a second time), Gruff Rhys because I got caught up watching the singalong, other stuff indoors because I didn't want to move from the grass outside.
- Third Indietracks and I've still never seen an act on the train.
- There was a huge bin thing at the top of bank, which (a) took up a really good spot, and (b) blocked the view of anyone sitting behind it, even 20 yards behind it. Has it always been positioned there and I just never noticed?
- I think the dust has shortened my lifespan by about five years. Still, that's the price we have to pay for nice weather, I suppose.
- That food place that sold loads of halloumi stuff wasn't there. I was surprised, since it always seemed to have big queues and sell out of stuff. Still, the pizza was pretty tasty, even if you did have to wait 20 minutes for it.

Anyway, it was wonderful overall. Maybe the best I've been to, although my first time was special as well.

Got home quite late, and I have to get up in not enough hours to go to work, but I had an amazing time and it was so great to see so many great bands and people again (and for the first time).

Strangely for me I decided not to make sleep my top priority on returning home and I have been going through my photos. There is a short set on my Facebook where I made myself stick to one picture per band. There is a much longer set on Flickr - here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jayen_ait ... 591852528/

Thanks so much everyone for being amazing, and thanks again this year to everyone who works so hard to make Indietracks happen, be they team Indietracks, The Midland Railway Centre, or anyone else contributing to this highpoint of the year. You are all wonderful.

Heavenly pop hit!
Allo Darlin’ with Emma Kupa and The Just Joans.
A very sweaty Lonely Tourist on a very sweaty train on Saturday.
The Manhattan Love Suicides in the church.
ONSIND
The charming nervousness and casual vulgarity of Axolotes Mexicanos.
Martha in the fullest merch tent ever.
Pete Dale in the tent.
Emma Kupa in the tent.
The enthusiasm of The Wendy Darlings.
Beach singalong with The Blue Minkies.
The Hobbes Fanclub.
Selling out of all my new fanzines.
Chatting with bands and other people in the merchtent, and everywhere.
Meeting Candy Twist-contributors Kristin Gill, Simona Irish and MJ Hibbett for the first time.
Meeting TONS of people again.
Spending hours at the campsite discos with other Dutch pop nerds.
The pretty awkward but great combination of Joanna Gruesome and Dean Wareham on their duet of ‘Tugboat’.
The Swapsies with their Indietracks version of ‘(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care’
Withered Hand, especially ‘Black tambourine’, ‘Religious songs’ and ‘Heart heart’.

It was a bit of a weird year for me, tiredness, personal tastes and some bad luck meant I didn't really get into the festival spirit until halfway through Saturday, but once I did it was a great time again. Gruff Rhys was my highlight, but I also massively enjoyed ONSIND and Martha, The Thyme Machine, Mega Emotion and the Hidden Cameras. Sad that I didn't get to try the pizza but every time I tried there was a long wait and I went for quicker options to avoid missing bands. Always lovely to see people I haven't seen in a while, too!

It seems to get better every year, doesn't it? It's probably because we're all dying...

I found it too hot, but who cares? The best bits were: finally seeing Spearmint again after over a decade and them still being brilliant; Allo Darlin' somehow getting better as the years pass by (the joy on Emma's face when she came on was wonderful); Joanna Gruesome performing a wonderfully snotty/bashful set; finding a new band like Axolotes Mexicanos (especially the hilarious deadpan translation); The Hobbes Fanclub and Night Flowers providing a perfect end to my time at Indietracks; Gruff Rhys being dead funny and (thankfully, for me) not playing a straight set; the barman who raised his eyebrows every time I asked for "two American Girls, please" at the bar (and all the staff in general); Blue Minkies; the might MJ Hibbett and Validators renaissance; Thee Ahs; The Royal Landscaping Society; and many, many more I missed, but will no doubt see again.

It's so bloody lovely to be able to travel 15 miles down the road to the best festival thing in the world. And then walk back to your hotel/tent/ditch/whatever at night without having to wade through tens of thousands of idiots and huge crowds and all that stuff. More again next year, please.